Tesla Inc.’s Elon Musk tweeted he may have Covid-19 and renewed his conspiratorial posting about the virus that has infected almost 53 million people.
“Something extremely bogus is going on,” the chief executive officer wrote late Thursday. “Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive.”
The billionaire said he took a series of rapid antigen tests, which produce results within 15 minutes and are cheaper but less reliable than polymerase chain reaction tests. He’s now waiting for results from the latter type of test, which take longer to process.
Musk, 49, wrote that he was experiencing symptoms of a typical cold, describing them as “nothing unusual so far.”
The CEO has at times been dismissive and sowed doubts about Covid-19, questioning the virality of the disease and claiming fatality rates are overstated. In March, he predicted there would be close to zero new cases in the U.S. by April. Roughly 150,000 cases are now being reported in the country each day.
Musk appeared to cast doubt on the extent of infections in a follow-up tweet, claiming false positive results will track with the number of tests conducted and that the U.S. “daily test rate has gone ballistic.”
Shares of Tesla fell 0.7% to $408.70 as of 9:48 a.m. in New York.
Musk travels regularly on his private jet between work sites for Tesla and the rocket company he runs, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. His plane touched down in Berlin last week, where he conducted in-person interviews with applicants to work at the factory Tesla is building near the German capital.
Germany has been struggling to contain a second wave of the virus and this month closed bars, restaurants and leisure facilities, while keeping businesses open. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has urged citizens to keep social contacts to a minimum and avoid non-essential travel.
Tesla was forced to temporarily halt work at its just-opened plant near Shanghai early this year, though it was the shutdown of its main factory in the U.S. that stoked controversy. The company resisted idling the facility until local officials called the facility in Fremont, California a public health risk.